Former US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro on Monday endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for President.
Castro, who was himself seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, last week ended his campaign after failing to gain traction.
“Elizabeth and I share a vision of America where everyone counts. An America where people—not the wealthy or well-connected—are put first. I'm proud to join her in the fight for big, structural change,” he said in a video published to his Twitter account on Monday.
Castro quit the race after he rarely broke 2 percent in national polls of the Democratic primary race.
After qualifying for the first four Democratic presidential debates in 2019, he failed to make the cut for the party’s November and December forums, and appeared almost certain to miss the next debate on January 14.
Last month, Castro said that if elected, he would keep the US embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, joining several other Democratic candidates who have indicated they would not reverse Trump’s decision to relocate the embassy if elected..
Warren has been highly critical of the Israeli government and of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In November, after Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Netanyahu had been indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, she criticized Netanyahu on Twitter and wrote, “Like his pal Donald Trump, he'll stop at nothing to enrich himself and stay in power. This blatant corruption has no place in any democracy—I'll fight it at home and abroad.”
In the past, Warren has called on the Israeli government to respect the rights of Palestinian Arab protesters on the Gaza border. The protests, dubbed the “March of the Return”, have been occurring on a weekly basis since March 30 of 2018 and have been orchestrated and encouraged by Hamas.
Shortly after she announced her presidential bid, Warren said that the United States should be pushing Israel and the Palestinian Authority toward a two-state solution.
In October, she suggested that the US should withhold aid to Israel as a means to pressure it to stop “settlement construction”.